Jerry Jones Now Says Cowboys Will Evaluate Kicking Situation This Week

Cowboys' placekicker Brett Maher had a night to forget in Dallas' 31-14 Wild Card win over Tampa Bay yesterday. 

After missing three extra point attempts in the first two quarters alone, Maher missed a fourth point-after try in the early stages of the second half. His kicking woes forced the Cowboys to significantly alter their game plan for the rest of the contest, specifically, going for it on a fourth-and-four in the fourth quarter instead of kicking a field goal.

Despite the play succeeding and Dallas scoring a touchdown (followed by Maher's first XP make of the night!), the Cowboys seem to understand that they cannot make a deep postseason run without a reliable kicker. 

As evidence, just hours after he publicly supported Maher postgame, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones is now saying that Dallas "will take a look at" the kicking situation ahead of their Divisional Round matchup with San Francisco. 

Jones made his usual appearance on Dallas' 105.3 The Fan this Tuesday morning.

In a conversation with radio host Shan Shariff, the two discussed last night's Wild Card win over Tampa Bay. After some time, the topic of Maher's off-day came to the forefront. 

Shariff asked Jones, "The big story for the rest of this week is going to be your kicker with what Brett Maher last night. Do you consider replacing Brett Maher for the 49er game?"

The Cowboys' owner had an interesting response. 

"Well, I think the first thing you do is talk about how isn’t it great to have that the number one thing we need to correct or the number one thing we need to address. I think that shows everything about not only how we played, but where we are with this team right now," Jones replied. 

He's got a point. 

After years of postseason ineptitude, it must be nice that Cowboys' fans largest complaint from last night was a poor kicking performance in an otherwise dominant win. 

Jones didn't stop there, though. 

"Make no mistake about it we got to have the same week of preparation. Now, over to our kicker. This is a classic case of looking at what he’s done for this team and done on the field all year, not just last night," Jones continued. 

Before last night, Maher had put forth arguably his best kicking season as a pro in 2022 with the Cowboys. He made 29 of 32 total field goal attempts and connected on 50 of 53 (94.3%) extra point tries this year. 

After Jones' initial comment of praise, however, the Cowboys' owner then said that the team will "read this thing as the week goes along." 

"Kicking is a technical thing. It has everything to do with the — just frankly mentally having it altogether when you step up there. And, so, we’ll read this thing as the week goes along. I don’t want to get out over skis and get ahead of it. I thought when he came out at halftime, watched him warm up out there. He was making all the kicks. I figured that was behind him, but we will take a look at it. We can’t be really a big setback to go into the rest of this tournament, rest of this playoff with shakiness at kicker," Jones concluded. 

Dallas will take on San Francisco in the Divisional Round this coming Sunday. Their road affair with the 49ers will kick off at 6:30 p.m. ET on Fox.